In relation to a simple past tense, the past perfect is often used to move to an earlier past.

Look at this sentence from The Lake (Ch16): ‘He yawned and looked at his watch. It was only 8pm. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks.’

The yawn and the look took place in the past – the use of the simple past tense indicates this. However, the lack of ‘a good night’s sleep’ (which means the person slept badly) happened BEFORE the yawn and BEFORE the look. The past perfect has taken the narrative into a more distant past – a time before the other two events (yawn, look)

Here is another example from the Lake (Ch16): ‘Farley started up the engine of the old Ford. He had had to deal with lots of criminals over the years – and a lot of bent cops.’

The defining relative clause adds important information to the basic sentence. The defining relative clause = ‘that Annie Baker lived in‘. In this sentence, the defining relative clause gives us more information about the house. Because of the defining relative clause, we know that we are talking about Annie’s house and no one else’s.

The basic sentence = ‘The house was next to the lake’.

2. Look at this sentence from The Lake (Ch15): “He opened a ledger that he held in his hands.”

a. What is the main verb?

b. What is the defining relative clause?

c. What is the basic sentence?

3. Look at another sentence from The Lake (Ch15): “The office car that he was using was outside.”

HARD as an adjective. ‘Hard’ is an adjective that can mean ‘tough/difficult’. For example, ‘It’s a hard question to answer’ means I find the question difficult to answer.

Also, ‘hard’ as an adjective can mean ‘not soft’: ‘I can’t eat this apple: it’s too hard’. This means the apple is not soft enough.

‘Harder’ is a different kind of adjective. It is a comparative. It compares two things. In this sentence, ‘The exam was harder than I expected.’ The comparison is across two exams: the ‘imaginary one’ and the ‘real one’. Unfortunately, the one in my mind was easier than the real one!

HARD as an adverb: ‘Hard’ can be an adverb too. For example, ‘I had to run hard to catch the bus’. In this sentence, ‘hard’ describes how I ran. The sentence means I had to run a lot to catch the bus.

‘Harder’ is a different kind of adverb. It is an adverb of comparison. It means – in the example coming up – I did something ‘more than before’. For example, ‘I ran harder yesterday to catch the bus than I did today because I was tired.’ The comparison is of how I ran across two times: yesterday and today. Of course, ‘harder’ can be used to talk about more effort in the future too. For example, ‘I’ll study harder for the English exam’ (compared to the studying I did for a different exam).

HARDLY as an adverb: ‘Hardly’ is an adverb. It means ‘almost not at all’. For example, ‘He hardly ate anything’ means he ate very little food.

PRACTICE

A. Is the underlined word an adjective (1), a comparative (2), an adverb (3) or an adverb of comparison (4)?

i. I can hardly see out the window – it’s so dirty.

ii. If you don’t like maths it can be hard to understand physics.

iii. It’s not too hard to lose weight if you have a good diet and exercise!

iv. He won the gold medal at the Olympics because he trained harder than the others.